How to Get Rid of Frogs | 8 Easy & Effective Ways

Let us preface this by saying that this article is not intended to offend anyone. We understand that frog lovers out there enjoy knowing about them, and some even keep them as pets. Everything is well and fine, but frogs are best in their natural habitat. No one likes to entertain frogs when they linger around in one’s backyard.

So, how to get rid of frogs? Before anything, consider that frogs don’t commonly infest the house. You will often find them in the backyard, keeping up with their surroundings, hopping away on the bed of green grass. But they can be a nuisance sometimes, and we understand why you’d want to keep them away.

Also read: How to Get Rid of Bed Worms?

This article will highlight some of the most effective ways to get rid of the frogs from and around your home.

List of Ways to Get Rid of Frogs

When it comes to getting rid of frogs, you can easily do so if you know the steps. Ideally, we’d recommend that you get rid of them or prevent them from entering your house or backyard instead of harming them. They, for the most part, are innocent. So, the last thing you want to do is hurt them without intent.

1. Find Out the Infesting Species

The first thing you need to do to exterminate the frogs is to find out what species of frogs you are dealing with. Typically, we’d recommend analyzing the species because some species are protected by law. So, killing them can land you in a legal dispute.

However, a few other species are considered invasive, and you can get rid of them without any concerns. One of the most common invasive frog species is the American bullfrog. They come in batches and can often hinder around the area, making it difficult for you to tame them all at once. 

So, before doing anything, you need to find and determine the species you are dealing with and then use the same to exterminate the species that are safe to get rid of.

2. Make the Living Conditions Hostile

Like any other living creature, even frogs don’t appreciate living in environments that they don’t find pleasing or inviting. That said, you’d have to do some of the extra work in doing the same. Some constructive and non-invasive ways will not just keep the existing frogs out of the house but will also prevent any more from filtering into your home. 

However, be assured that your first line of attack would be to get rid of every kind of lingering inviting factor that could contribute to the favorable living condition for the frog. For this, you can do the following:

• If you have a pool area or a pool that is filled with water and is often left uncovered, that’s what you need to tackle first. Clean out the pool and drain out the water if you aren’t actively using it or you don’t have a cover for it.
• If you have a lot of weeds and outgrowth in the backyard, clean things out completely. Excess growth is a leading reason behind frog infestation.
• Avoid leaving water for the birds or other animals in the garden or backyard until you have managed the frog infestation and have other preventive measures to control their onslaught.

Doing these will ensure you don’t have an unnecessary number of frogs infesting your house or the backyard. These small steps ensure to make the living conditions less favorable.

3. Cut Out Food Sources

Frogs often hunt down the backyards and the houses in search of food. It could be human food or even insects, whatever they can find in the close vicinity to gobble down on. So, when you are looking up how to get rid of frogs, cutting out any and every kind of food source is crucial.

Besides the water and the plants in your yard, other attractive and lucrative food sources attract the frogs. It could be the abundance of bugs and insects in the area. So, if you see the frogs returning every so often, you need to hunt down what kind of food sources are sustaining them.

Once you do, your work would be to get rid of them for good. Also, if bugs are increasing in and around your home, it could be due to the light sources. So, keep the light switched off or turned to the minimum setting at nighttime.

4. Fence It Out

Frogs are indeed expert jumpers and hoppers. But, American bullfrogs, which are the ones that most commonly infest the domestic spots around the home, are not the highest jumpers. They have a restrictive behavior and can only jump up to 1-2 feet.

So, if you want to prevent them from entering the perimeter of your home, the best way to do so would be by creating a tall fence or barrier around the house. You can build a permanent fence or create a barrier using plastic or mesh as a temporary shield to prevent them from entering.

Also, if you are using mesh or chicken wire, you need to ensure that you use ones that have finer wiring and weaving in them. This ensures that the frog can’t pass through the holes. Also, you need to ensure that the fencing is strong and stable, so it doesn’t topple over when the frogs jam it.

5. Use Salt or Citric Acid

Instead of events that you have to kill a frog, we’d recommend using salt or citric acid. Spraying or sprinkling a large amount of salt directly on the frog will immediately dehydrate them and their bodies, killing them in the process.

However, be assured that pouring excess salt around the garden or the backyard where your plants are growing will also kill them.

As for citric acid, a concentrated solution can kill the frogs almost instantaneously. It has potent effects in killing the frogs immediately when you spray down or pour the solution all over the frogs.

6. Prevent Reproduction

Dealing with one frog or two frogs is one thing, but things get out of hand when they start reproducing. Frogs can lay eggs in large quantities, especially in areas with water. And, once they lay eggs and hatch into tadpoles, there is no going back. You will have a backyard filled with frogs in no time at all.

However, you never know when or how a frog lays its eggs, right? So, what you need to do is stay vigilant. If you have an open pool and you notice possible eggs floating, scoop them out and destroy them, so they don’t end up hatching. As inhumane as it sounds, you must do that to avoid expanding their colony in and around your house.

7. Use Vinegar

As cliché as it sounds, vinegar does help in eliminating frogs from your house to an extent. The strong smell with the acidic properties in the vinegar has potent impacts in keeping the frogs out of your home.

Also, the strong acidic property in the vinegar creates a burning sensation when the frogs come in contact with the same. You need to make a concentrated solution using vinegar and then spray it down in the most frequently visited spots in the backyard or around the house.

8. Using Coffee Grounds

Another unusual but effective remedy to keep the frogs out is by using some kinds of coffee grounds. While coffee grounds can help promote plant growth by aerating the soil, the composition of coffee is very harmful to the frogs.

Once they smell it or come in contact with it, it becomes very difficult for them to stay on the spot, and they prefer not to return.

Also read: How to Get Rid of Camel Crickets?

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

If you are wondering how to get rid of frogs, we hope this article suffices your curiosity. Just ensure that you follow through with all the small knick-knacks mentioned. Make sure that you also keep an eye on the frog species you are going after before taking drastic steps. Also, if nothing seems to work out in your favor, you can always contact a professional exterminator to help you out with getting rid of these amphibians out of your house or even your yard that it has infested.